


Hero

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Angst, F/F, Other Such Cliches, Tragic Last Stands, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-14
Updated: 2011-01-14
Packaged: 2017-10-14 18:10:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/152045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kanaya tries to minimise the damage.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hero

  
"Don't you like my new duds?" says Vriska. She does a little twirl. Kanaya has to admit that despite the blinding radiance pouring off the other girl, there is something about Vriska's new outfit that is, well, absurd. Kanaya smiles to herself, because isn't that just Vriska all over? She has always been the girl who pretends to be a flamboyant piratical spiderqueen in her spare time. If must be easier to kill if it's just a game.

"Oh come on, meddlewitch," says Vriska, twirling so hard she almost lurches into a tree, "I flew all this way to show off to you, didn't I? If you're just going to sigh at me like one of your broody mopey rainbow drinkers maybe I'll go flaunt my fabulous new attire at a more deserving candidate." She sounds, as usual, like a wiggler trying to get her lusus' attention, but now there is something metallic in her voice, harsher and brighter than before.

"No, it's... very nice," says Kanaya, "Very you. Very... orange."

"Well," says Vriska, "Aren't you going to ask where I got them?"

"Well one might suppose you alchemised them," says Kanaya, and realises the truth almost as soon as the words are out of her mouth. "Oh. Oh, Vriska. You didn't go through with it." A sick fluttering feeling rises in Kanaya's stomach.

"A Serket always follows through on her plans," says Vriska in a self-satisfied drawl that makes Kanaya want to slap her. "Are you worrying about me? I told you I'd be fine, and I am fine. I might be an idiot girl but I can take care of myself. You're so ridiculous." Her grin fades, replaced by a prickly scowl.

"Vriska," she says, "I have if you recall expended an inordinate amount of time and effort in the no-doubt trivial endeavour of keeping you out of harm's way. When I heard what Aradia had done - they told me she was covered in blood. Your blood. I thought for a while - I didn't know - I couldn't live with myself." She sounds ridiculous, she knows.

"Jeez, lighten up, Kanaya," she says, "I'm right here. Better than ever before!"

"You were fine before," says Kanaya automatically, and after some thought, "We were doing fine."

"Oh, you're just jealous," says Vriska, though there's no malice or conviction in her voice. She leans back against a tree with a sort of angular, unconcerned gracelessness that nonetheless strikes Kanaya as terribly elegant.

"And why might that be?" says Kanaya with an exaggerated sigh designed to disguise the skipping of her heart.

"Because I'm going to kill the demon."

* * *

Vriska's pulse hums under clammy skin, as though she's feverish. Warm blood soaks into the front of Kanaya's dress, dark as ink.

"You're going to be absolutely fine," says Kanaya, setting her friend gently down under a tree.

Vriska looks up at her and does her best to scowl. "Liar." Her hands are still clutched around her shattered dice. The hard-edged splinters cut into her palms, but what's another wound? She has failed. She deserves to do penance.

"We're tough. I can see this healing very nicely," says Kanaya. Vriska winces, though she isn't sure whether it's the pain or Kanaya's attempts to be cheerful.

 _Stupid ugly fucking dogfaced bastard skewered me pretty good,_ she wants to say, _I was the best and I wasn't good enough._

"I think he's going to come back," says Kanaya. She's trying very hard to sound calm and measured, but Vriska can hear the strain in her voice. All the gentle chiding amusement is gone. "It would be wise to make a swift exit."

"Shouldn't have come after me, fussyfangs," Vriska says, the words sticking in her throat like shards of glass.

"I'll call the others," says Kanaya, "I know Sollux didn't go to join the humans. He could help us." She retreats behind the tree, leaving Vriska to stare at the sky. The leafless branches of the tree rustle overhead in the breeze.

When her friend reappears Vriska can see that she's almost shaking with fury. She's seen Kanaya lose her patience before, but this is something altogether more frightening. She burns white-hot.

"They won't come," says Kanaya, keeping her voice flat. "Sollux and Eridan, our erstwhile _friends_. They don't think it's worth the risk. They don't think you're worth the risk." She twists her hands together compulsively, stuffs them in the pockets of her bloodstained dress, removes them and checks Vriska's hastily-bandaged wounds again. Every muscle in her body is tense.

"I'm not," Vriska croaks. Kanaya pretends not to hear, watching the horizon and trying to slow her breathing. "Stupid of me." _Stupid and pathetic and no wonder the others wouldn't come for me._

"Karkat's on his way here from the humans' world," says Kanaya, "Half an hour, he said. You just have to hold on."

* * *

It's too late, and Kanaya is well aware of it.

"L-look," Vriska says. Kanaya turns, and sees a dark shape stamped upon the sky. Black wings, moving on the horizon. "Go. You can't take him."

"Now is not the time to suddenly develop the concept of selflessness, Vriska," says Kanaya, getting to her feet wearily.

"I'm _dead_ ," she says, "Just go."

"Do you really think you can stop me meddling _now_?"

"Yeah this is..." she pauses, spitting out a little blood, blue on her lips. "This is like a Kanaya party I guess." She laughs, sending rays of pain through her ribcage.

"It's a shame," she says, "I would have liked to meet Rose."

 _Never mind about your human girlfriend right now_ , she hears in her head, _I can't move ::::(_

Kanaya rolls her eyes. "Don't be so melodramatic. You're going to be fine." Her eyes are shut, the lids trembling as though holding back tears. The shadow on the sky draws nearer in silence.

When Jack Noir lands there is something like a look of amusement on his twisted face. Kanaya supposes she does look a trifle absurd - a girl with a chainsaw standing over her friend's body and trying quite hard not to fall over. What kind of last stand is that?

Noir watches her, and she realises with a sort of dreamlike horror that he might try to speak. She tries to steel herself but her hands are shaking. She can't possibly fight like this. All at once, she feels an alien force in her mind, neatly clamping down on her panic and fear and shoving them to one side like so much discarded luggage. In any other circumstances this would be a violation, but just now Vriska's presence is strangely comforting, like a flickering blue candle flame.

 _Don't, she says, _I can do this. Let me do this for you_. Noir seems to be laughing, a horrible sound between a bark and a snarl that makes the hair on the back of Kanaya's neck stand up._

 _Same to you_ , says Vriska. The monstrosity before them stops laughing and draws his sword.

 _Together, then. <3_

When Karkat arrives, less than ten minutes later, Noir is gone. Instead, the bodies of two girls are fallen under the tree. They are lying a little way apart from each other, but their hands are tightly clasped.


End file.
